Butoh dance.

Visual arts, music, poetry and other forms of art.
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obnoxion
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Butoh dance.

Post by obnoxion »

https://youtu.be/sCT3vp0Gu1o

Here is a link to original butoh master dancing. As far as I know, the theme of the dance is a girl ghost. The story behind the theme is that the dancer's sister was supposedly sold to prostitution, and then later she died. So I take it that the dancer acts to recall his dead sister who lives on in the memory of his muscles. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

There was talk of making a topic for dance in general. But I thought it would be best to have separate topics for some prominent dance styles.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Heith
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Heith »

Ah, buto. I was doing this for a small while. Never professionally, I wasn't good at it either. But I was completely obsessed with this. I think to date it is the only style of dancing that I find genuinely interesting and beautiful.

Basically there's two "original branches" of Buto, Tatsumi Hijikata's being one and Kazuo Ohno's style the other. My teacher was one of Ohno's students, so that was present a lot. Nowadays of course it has gotten a bit more diverse.

Nice that you posted this, just the other day when I was brushing my dog I recalled Hijikata's remark on the superiority of a dog's rib cage. ("I adore rib cages but, again, it seems to me that a dog's rib cage is superior to mine")
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Polyhymnia »

This is the first time I've seen Butoh and I think I'm officially obsessed.
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obnoxion
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by obnoxion »

Heith wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:21 pm Ah, buto. I was doing this for a small while. Never professionally, I wasn't good at it either. But I was completely obsessed with this. I think to date it is the only style of dancing that I find genuinely interesting and beautiful.
My intention of Butoh dancing is almost a pipe-dream, as for me a simple walking is often an excercise in muscle and nerve pain. But I try to have an intention of butoh when I do my humble excercises. I can relate to the croached basic butoh posture of someone who is not able to stand straight. And I've read that disabled people can do butoh, too, so I keep hoping to find a way.

Considering that one butoh teacher, when asked to do an interviw on butoh for a new paper, assigned the task of explaining butoh to her most inexperienced student. And that was the article they ran on the paper. So there is a zen-like fluidity and humor to butoh that I find appealing. Most of all, however, I am drawn to the utter darkness.

Here is anothert short video, this time of a contemporary Swiss dancer. In all simplicity, the goreography seems to be about a person who falls down the stairs and cannot stand up straight again. So it is, I think, very butohesque dynamic:

https://youtu.be/9ms7MGs2Nh8
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Heith
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Heith »

obnoxion wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 9:17 am
Here is anothert short video, this timr of a contemporary Swiss dancer. In all simplicity, the goreography seems to be about a person who falls down the stairs and cannot stand up straight again. So it is, I think, very butohesque dynamic:

https://youtu.be/9ms7MGs2Nh8
I'm familiar with this dancer too. Haven't met them, but have seem recorded performances.

One thing that I think might interest you is something my teacher once said about his dancing. He said that when he performs, when he feels like he has no strength, his dead ancestors push his body and give him the strength to carry on. My teacher was extremely into buddhism, and that put me off a bit actually during lessons. Or perhaps it was the way it came across.

I have always found this particular performance to be very interesting, although I'm of two minds of animals used in performance art. Still, few things are as strong and graceful as horses. Ko Murobushi is from the Hijikata school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q07CLR5Q-8g

There is some dancers who have adopted butoh as an expression of their witchcraft. I haven't seen any of their performances yet, so don't really have an opinion of that.
Kavi
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Kavi »

Heith wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:21 pm Ah, buto. I was doing this for a small while. Never professionally, I wasn't good at it either. But I was completely obsessed with this. I think to date it is the only style of dancing that I find genuinely interesting and beautiful.

Basically there's two "original branches" of Buto, Tatsumi Hijikata's being one and Kazuo Ohno's style the other. My teacher was one of Ohno's students, so that was present a lot. Nowadays of course it has gotten a bit more diverse.

Nice that you posted this, just the other day when I was brushing my dog I recalled Hijikata's remark on the superiority of a dog's rib cage. ("I adore rib cages but, again, it seems to me that a dog's rib cage is superior to mine")
I google and read too much of information from internet and sometimes it's hard to grasp on any topic holistically.
If possible, please, it would be great if you'd quickly inform what these "two discourses" mean especially Hijikata?
I for instance just know basic principles of Buto and based on Kazuo Ohno's philosophy he seems more emphasizing the meaning of dance but I might have incoherent view on this topic.
At least this kind of view I got from this video clip on technique and motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHf7Dfaky4
Although this idea resonates on (huge) some level in me I still think technique is good to learn in any arts. And I think he doesn't mean that it should be ignored either. Or does he? (probably yes..) :lol:

Why this resonates in me hugely is because in every sports, arts, music etc. technique is always emphasized enormously but of course it shouldn't mean that person should always run away from learning techniques.
obnoxion
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by obnoxion »

Heith wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 12:32 pm One thing that I think might interest you is something my teacher once said about his dancing. He said that when he performs, when he feels like he has no strength, his dead ancestors push his body and give him the strength to carry on. My teacher was extremely into buddhism, and that put me off a bit actually during lessons. Or perhaps it was the way it came across.
Yes, I've understood that it is death and the dead that move the dancer. And it is something one must find from inside. The movement is, I've understood, a kind of independent force thst must be discovered.

I've understoon that Kazuo Ono was a christian (a rare conviction in Japan), and Hijikata Tatsumi was agnostic who had, however, adopted cultural buddhist values from his surroundings. And Tatsumi's last words have been interpreted as expressing a spiritual realization.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Polyhymnia
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Polyhymnia »

I've just signed up for some dance classes here in my city that include Butoh. They haven't run a Butoh workshop for two years, but I think this is a good place to start. I've been toying with the idea of taking dance classes for years now, but could never settle on which. Problem solved. What a beautiful art.
"Limited love asks for possession of the beloved, but the unlimited asks only for itself." -Kahlil Gibran
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Heith
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Re: Butoh dance.

Post by Heith »

Kavi wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2020 5:09 pm
If possible, please, it would be great if you'd quickly inform what these "two discourses" mean especially Hijikata?
I for instance just know basic principles of Buto and based on Kazuo Ohno's philosophy he seems more emphasizing the meaning of dance but I might have incoherent view on this topic.
At least this kind of view I got from this video clip on technique and motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHf7Dfaky4
Although this idea resonates on (huge) some level in me I still think technique is good to learn in any arts. And I think he doesn't mean that it should be ignored either. Or does he? (probably yes..) :lol:

Why this resonates in me hugely is because in every sports, arts, music etc. technique is always emphasized enormously but of course it shouldn't mean that person should always run away from learning techniques.
If you mean how they differ, then I can try and explain -but please bear in mind that I was never a buto dancer, nor am I in any way very deep in that culture. I did it for a while only, and read on the subject and then of course what my teacher said and taught us. To quote my teacher, Ohno and Hijikata could be seen as the mother and father of figures of buto. My teacher said that Ohno was like a loving mother, soft and feminine, and Hijikata was masculine and hard, like a stern father.

Both Ohno Hijikata were very technically exemplary skilled dancers with extreme control over their bodies. Buto, although it seems perhaps random, is technically very demanding. I guess that once one becomes a master in controlling their body in order to achieve their desired expression a kind of freedom follows, and one can express and discover. Before that, it is always to an extent a technical attempt. It is like in painting -there can be no expression if one does not understand how to use the tools. But yes, Buto has no rules of right and wrong movement, like for example ballet does. A ballet dancer will always be judged against the set framework of how each movement has to be done, because that is a rule. In Buto this isn't present. And this is why I love Buto –it is, lacking a better word, dangerous.

Hijikata emphasized strength and endurance in his training perhaps more than Ohno. Hijikata's dance pupils were put under extreme physical and mental strain, sleep deprivation and hunger. Hijikata's performance style is harsher and maybe more shocking than Ohno's, who seems to have found beauty perhaps in more conventional means (if such a thing can be said of buto) than Hijikata, and Ohno's style I think leans more on the traditional Japanese arts, like Noh theatre, than Hijikata's. For example, my teacher -who was Ohno's pupil- would use Noh theatre techniques and characters in training frequently, like "the ghost walking". With that said, I always felt that it was not simply a question of movements, but the thought behind the movement and the intention. It is certainly a spiritual, or a mental dance. Or so I think.
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